When our daughter was a toddler, people were constantly amazed she never pitched a fit. It wasn’t because she was spoiled or because she was too terrified of us to want to get her way. She could be as stubborn as any toddler. She just never had a full tantrum. Finally, one of my friends with older children, told me she had figured out my secret. (Mind you I didn’t know at that point I had one!) “You are interacting with your child on a level where you are catching her before she crosses that line into tantrum mode.”
Want to cut your discipline issues drastically? Catch your kids while they are still in temptation mode and nip it in the bud. Just like it is almost impossible to stop a toddler in full tantrum mode, it’s very difficult to get through to a child or a teen who is already well into the middle of their disobedience and sin. (Disobeying a parent is sinful, because it is rebellion, not necessarily because your rule itself is a “sin” issue.)
I know I shouldn’t have favorites, but if I had to pick my favorite books of the Bible, James would definitely make the list. Written by James, the brother of Jesus, the Book of James is one of the most easy to understand, practical books in the Bible. Because of that, it is one of the books I suggest kids and teens just beginning to read their Bible independently tackle first.
I am always looking for new resources that may speak to teens. I am not sure why, but it seems there just aren’t that many books which claim to help teens think about popular culture subjects from a godly perspective. One of my favorite authors in the category has always been Rebecca St. James. My daughter and I discovered her with a series she had developed for mothers and daughters and we stayed with her as she developed new materials during my daughter’s teen years.
attempts to cover the topics of interest to teen girls. From fashion to media to friends and boys, Weider gives tips from a Christian perspective.
People often ask the best way to encourage their children to begin reading the Bible independently. The first thing to do is to make sure your child has a Bible that is accurate, but still easy to understand. The best one I have found so far is the NIrV version. It’s written on a third grade reading level, but is a translation and not a paraphrase (which can be very inaccurate in my opinion). Until recently, it only came in covers appropriate for young children, but I noticed the last time I was in the bookstore it now comes in covers for adults and even has a student study version.